The Azure Baronies
More commonly known as simply "The Baronies", the Azure Baronies of the Great Wyrm Deiliged are a collection of settlements, city-states, and the stretches of desert, badlands, and ruins that lie within them, all under the dominion of Deiliged, an ancient Blue Dragon .
The dragon has been fairly hands off, leaving power to local cities, but ensuring that they never get to large or too powerful. The lands between the cities are preserves, and while people can live there, no protection is offered to any outside sanctioned towns. The main exception to this rule is the roads. Because of this, the Baronies are seen as some of the most free zones in the Chromatic Empire. Laws are minimal to ensure order, and the desired order is what the Draconic masters set.
The roads between the baronies are maintained, and certain resources are allowed to be taken, all of it through allotments and a bureaucracy of blue dragon kin and loyalists that serve Deiliged's interests first, and the people a distant second.
Most people never deal with the dragons though. For most, life is about finding work and a way to get by. Most cities are a fantasy noir version of 1970's Americana. The problems and the struggles are their own. Rulers and criminals, church and state, rich and poor. Each city is its own government, and free to make deals between each other... with the draconic governor's approval. But no militaries outside of self-defense, and no war are allowed.
Adventurers can find many roles to fill. Within the cities there are classic problems, crime, intrigue, and danger. Outside the cities there's the job of transporting goods, a dangerous challenge in itself. There are also the ruins of the old kingdoms to explore, with powerful relics from the old magical knowledge, some of which it's said could even take down a dragon.
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